Sliding-dqor guide and closer



Patented Aug. 23, I898.

0. r. AaARn. SLIDING 000B GUIDE A ND CLOSER.

(Applicatioli filed Sept 4, 1887 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

Inventor Charles F diyard By 7023.; fliforizey No. 609,605, Patented Aug. 23, I898. C. F. AGARD.

SLIDING DOOR GUIDE AND CLOSER.

(Application filed Sept. 4. 1897.)

(No Model) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

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CHARLES F. AGARD, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

SLIDING-DQORGUIQDE ANVD CLOSER;

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 609,605, dated August 23, 1898. Application filed September 4, 1897. Serial No. 650,676. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. AGARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vestibule-Car-Door Guides and Closers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to improved means for guiding rolling or sliding doors, windows, or shutters, particularly those which are situated adjacent to the angular walls of buildings, railway-cars, and other structures. As a door-guide it maybe considered an improvement upon the guiding means shown in my previous patent, No. 580,590, of April 13,1897;

and it is intended to be used as a substitute for the guide 12 for use in connection with a guiding-rail, as shown and described-in that patent.

The object of the present invention is to provide a device which performs in a more perfect and satisfactory manner the functions performed by the guiding-bracket of the previous patent and in addition thereto performs some functions not contemplated for the original device. Among these may be mentioned that of pressing the door toward its closed position after it has been nearly closed by hand and for holding it in its closed position with a constant and sufficiently firm pressure to Withstand the opening tendency due to the jolting of the vehicle, yet yielding readily to the pressure of the hand when it is desired to open the door. It also serves to retain the door when moved to its open position and at all times to engage the guidingrail with a firm yet elastic pressure, so as to prevent the rattling noise ordinarily attendant upon engaging contact between metallic guides, yet without imposing any resistance to the free movement of the door, excepting when the latter is at its fully-opened position or is in or near its closed position, as above explained. a

This invention is herein shown as applied to one of the side doors of a car-vestibule similar to'that shown in my previous patent, the door D being suspended by means of suitable swiveling hangers H upon a supporting track-rail 9, which is located adjacent to and substantially parallel with the curved or angular adjacent wall of the vestibule, along which the door follows closely, so as to encroach in the least possible degree upon the .floor-space of the vestibule, thereby enabling the door to be easily opened even when the vestibule is filled with passengers without crowding them aside, against the controller, or against each other.

[Figure l of the drawings is an elevation, looking from the interior of the vestibule of the car, of a door suspended and provided with a guiding-rail, as shown in my previous patent, and provided also with the improved guiding and closing device of my present invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view in section, taken on the line2 2 of Fig. 1, showing the doorin its closed position and showing also to best advantage the position of my improved guide relative to its guide-rail, whereby it serves to close the door and to retain it in its closed position. Figs. 3 and 4 are similar plan views in section, taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 repre senting the door pushed open from its closed position far enough to bring the two engaging portions of my improved guide upon the straight part of the guide-rail, in which they have no tendency to push the door in either direction. Fig. 4 represents the door pushed to its wide-open position, with the guide serving as a stop to hold it in that position. Fig. 5 is a plan view, Fig. 6 a side elevation, and Fig. 7 a rearward elevation,in a scale enlarged from that of the previous figures, showing fully the construction and arrangement of my improved guide and closer The device of my present invention consists of a flanged frame 20, which is adapted to be attached to the rearward edge of the door D. The fixed arm'2l of the frame extends rear wardly from the doorand downwardly behind the guide-rail13 and is preferably provided with the freely-rotating roll 22, having a rolling contact with the rearward side of that guide-rail. A roll 23 is in rolling contact with the front side of the guide-rail, being fitted to rotate in the swinging arm 24:, which is pivotally mounted upon or between suitable lugs on the frame 20, being also provided with the spring 25, preferably coiled around the axial pin of the hinge and bearing against the arm 24, so as to press the roll 23 of the latter with a suitable degree of force against the frame to hold the roll 22 against the rearward side of that rail. The guide-rail is therefore engaged on its opposite sides with constant elastic pressure by the rolls 22 and 23, thus preventing all looseness and consequent rattling of the device as it is pushed from end to end of the guide-rail. These rolls may be located directly opposite each other upon their respective sides of the guiderail when it is desired to utilize the device as a guide only for the door, as shown and described in my previous patent; but for my present purposes I prefer to arrange them at a distance apart longitudinally of that rail substantially as shown in the drawings, in order toobtain the closing action upon the door, as best shown in Fig. 2 and hereinafter described, it being obvious that this effect could not so readily be obtained if the rolls were located directly opposite to each other with relation to the rail.

The operation of this device when serving as a door-closer may best be understood by a comparison of Figs. 1 and 2. In opening the door from the position shown in the former figure it is necessary to force the arm 24 open to the position shown in the latter figure, and as this movement of the arm is resisted by means of its spring 25 the tendency will be to retain the door in its closed position, and also to return it to that closed position if the door happens to be opened slightly by the swaying or jolting of the vehicle, the effect being as though the two rolls were pressed together against the opposite sides of a wedge located with its thinner end toward the closing direction of the door. This closing tendency of the arm 24, under the operation of its spring, extends from the closed position (shown in Fig. 2) until the door is opened far enough to carry the roller 22 around the angle 28 of the guide-rod upon a surface thereof running parallelwith that against which the roll 23 engages, in which position there is no tendency to move the door in either direction by the pressure of the spring. As the opening movement of the door is continued from the position shown in Fig. 3 it is again resisted as the roller 23 reaches the angle 27 in the guide-rail, thus serving as a buffer, until the roller 22 has passed around the outer side of the angle 27 upon a portion of the rail, which again is parallel with that with which the roll 23 engages. At its outer end, the rail 13 is preferably provided with a depressed portion 26, in which the'roller 23 rests to retain the door in its open position, as shown in Fig. 4; or a similar depression may be made in the opposite side of" the guide-rail at the point thereof occupied by the roller 22, which would serve the same purpose; or, instead of the depression in the rail, it may be provided with an enlargement or lug over and behind which either of the rolls may pass and which resists to a suitable degree their closing movement, it being obvious that the resistance is imposed in each case by an obstacle over which one of the rolls must rise against the tendency of the spring to press them together. In any case the resistance offered to the closing movement of the door from the position shown in Fig. 4 should not 'be so great as to prevent ready displacement therefrom by hand when it is desired to close the door.

It is not an essential feature of this invention that the yielding or spring-pressed member for engaging the rail should be a pivotally-mounted arm, inasmuch as the rail-e11- gaging member corresponding to the roll 23 may be mounted upon a slide with a suitable spring urging it toward and against the rail, or the roll may be mounted in yielding boxes, as is commonly done in the case of one of the members of a pair of rolls'which are required to separate to allow substances of different thicknesses to pass between them. Nor is it absolutely essential to employ rotating rolls for this purpose,inasmuch as fixed pins might be employed in their place, or the arms might be made to bear directly against their respective sides of the guiding-rail, as in the case of the pin of my previous patent; but to obtain the best results and to obtain a smoothrunning, easily-operated, and noiseless device I prefer to engage the guiding-rail by means of freely-rotating rolls and to mount the yielding roll upon a pivotally mounted springpressed arm, as herein shown and described. The member21,which is herein designated as a fixed arm, need not be fixed in the strictest sense of the word, the terms fixed anc resilient or yielding being employed in their relative sense as between the two arms. Obviously the arm 21 would guide the door sufficiently even if made somewhat resilient.

This device may be employed in connection with a guide-rail of any desired curvature in either direction, or it may be employed in connection with a straight rail, the closing effect being obtained by the use of a suitable inclination in the side of the guiding-rail, against which the yielding member presses, and this inclination may be extended to any desired point from which it may be desired to have the device commence to exert its closing influence upon the door.

I claim as my invention 1. In combination with a door and with the guide-rail therefor, arranged in a curved or sinuous path, a guiding device attached to the door and consisting of a relatively-fixed member, and of a yielding member, engaging the opposite sides of the rail at different locations longitudinally thereof.

2. The combination with a sliding door and a guide-rail therefor, of a spring-pressed arm carried by the door and engaging with said rail, the rail being provided with a depression 'or inclination for engaging with the arm when the door is in its open position, serving to retain it in that position.

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3. In combination with a sliding door, and with a guide-rail therefor having an inclined surface near the end thereof adjacent the doorway; of a spring-controlled arm carried by the door and adapted to operatively engage said inclined surface during the closing movement of the door whereby the door is fully closed and yieldingly retained in its closed position.

4. In combination with a sliding door of the class specified, and with a guiding-rail therefor, means attached to the door for engaging With the rail and for guiding the door in its opening movement, consisting of afixed arm travel of the door.

CHAS. F. AGARD. Witnesses:

WILLIAM A. LORENZ, WILLIAM H. HoNIss. 

